Hurt
by intothedeep27
Summary: Logan always wondered how death would greet him. Never in a million years did he think he'd be greeted like this, by protecting a child he barely knew. Never did he think that in his last moments, he would hear these words. Yet, she said them, giving him the one thing he'd been yearning for since the beginning. She gave him...peace. "Daddy, please, don't go.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary** : _He always wondered how death would greet him. Never in a million years did he think he'd be greeted like this_ ― _by protecting a child he barely knew. Never did he think that in his last moments, he would hear these words. Yet, she said them, giving him the one thing he'd been yearning for since the beginning. She gave him...peace. "Daddy, please, don't go._

* * *

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Logan, X-Men, or any of the Marvel characters affiliated with this movie.

* * *

Spoilers for Logan, don't read any further if you haven't seen the movie and don't want to have it ruined for you.

* * *

 _ **I hurt myself today  
To see if I still feel,  
I focus on the pain  
The only thing that's real.  
The needle tears a hole,  
The old familiar sting.  
Try to kill it all away,  
But I remember everything.**_

 _Hurt,_ Johnny Cash

* * *

He roars.

Pain.

It hurts.

He can barely breathe.

" _NO!_ "

He nearly blacks out but a sudden, " _bang!_ " and blood that splatters all over him keep him awake.

At least, for now.

"No, no, no, no," he hears a small whimper. "No, no, no!" There is a sheathing sort of sound and before he knows it, even more pain explodes from his back, forcing a painful growl from his throat. "P-Please, you'll be _okay!_ " However, compared to before, there is less...pressure and surprisingly, less pain, allowing him to slump back as comfortably as he can against the tree that is killing him.

Groggily, he opens his eyes and sees a face that is becoming very familiar to him. "Laura," he calls out, his hand reaching out to the little girl. "You're safe."

"No, no, no, no, _please_ ," she begs, her bottom lip quivering. When he sees tears pooling in her eyes, he knows that they do not belong there, that they do not fit her. He never wants to see her like this again.

"Don't-" He suddenly coughs, pain once again exploding throughout his chest. He cannot control himself and before he knows his, blood is trailing down his mouth, bloodying his face even more. "Don't be sad...it's time."

"P-Please, no, you can't." She brings his hand to the side of her face and cradles it, her face contorted with grief. He tries to place his palm against her cheek and fails. Instead, he gives her a sad smile.

"Laura, you need to go. They'll-" he coughs and even more blood to comes out- "they'll be back. You need...to be safe."

He is beginning to lose feeling in his legs and he knows it will not be long before his arms and hands follow, until it ends with his death.

"Take your friends and run…" He looks at the young children standing near them. "They'll keep coming, and coming...you don't have to fight anymore."

"B-But," she tries to talk but a small sob leaves her mouth. "I can't..." She grips his scar-torn hands as if it will keep him here.

"Go." Using as much strength as he could, he grips her hand. "Don't be...what they made you," he says, hoping that the look he gives her conveys what he truly feels.

Images of his life flash before his eyes. All the lives he has taken, all the selfish things he's done. When people are around him, they die. No matter how hard he tries to protect them, they all die, in the end. They always die.

So this time, he will not make that same mistake. This time, he will protect what he loves the most in the world because this is the last thing he _can_ do.

She continues to cry but a few seconds later, in a voice so faint that he nearly misses it, she says to him, "Daddy, please, don't go."

His entire body freezes as his eyes widen in shock. His mouth is open and he has to tell himself to breathe, that what he heard was not a figment of his already fucked up mind. With a shaky breath, he forces his head to turn and looks at this girl, the girl he willingly gave his life to protect. She is a mess; her hair is clumped up and blood covers her small frame. She is stubborn, ruthless, cold, but she is here...because of him.

Warmth blooms across his chest, so different from the pain he had been feeling for the past few minutes. It is a feeling he has never felt and thought that he would never feel. This feeling, he thinks, belongs to someone that is not him. He does not deserve it, not after what he has caused.

Yet...here she is, calling for him. His flesh and blood; his _daughter._

He turns to look at the sky, the sun shining and the clouds soaring throughout the blue. As he lays here, gasping for air, he thinks that he is...proud of her.

" _Laura,_ " his voice breaks as he says her name.

He allows himself to cry in these last moments. He thinks he fucking deserves at least this. Tears are falling from his eyes as the warmth spreads all across his body, relieving him of his pain. There is no more of this shit, not in his body and not in his heart. Is this what it means to finally be able to forgive himself of all his sins? To be able to finally let go?

"... _Daddy_ ," she calls him one last time as if she knew, that with this word, a word that has managed to do something nobody has ever done before, he would finally be able to close his eyes without worry. She bows her head as she sobs louder.

"So...this is what it feels like," he whispers with a smile. From the corner of his eye, he sees Laura―he sees his daughter trembling as she cries. But she lifts her face anyways, allowing him to look into her familiar eyes. He notices the resignation in her eyes as she realizes that this...this is it.

She will be safe. He knows that she will be - she has her family and her friends. They will protect her, just as she protects them. She will not be alone.

There is a hand on his cheek and he knows it's her.

Logan looks up, still smiling. Birds are chirping and the trees move along with the wind that passes through them. There is only bliss and quietness as the little girl next to him gives him the one thing he never thought he would get.

Peace...at last.

* * *

" _ **A man has to be what he is, Joey. Can't break the mold. There's no living with the killing. There's no going back. Right or wrong, it's a brand. A brand that sticks. Now you run on home to your mother... you tell her everything's alright. There are no more guns in the valley."**_

 _Shane,_ 1953


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary** : _He always wondered how death would greet him. Never in a million years did he think he'd be greeted like this_ ― _by protecting a child he barely knew. Never did he think that in his last moments, he would hear these words. Yet, she said them, giving him the one thing he'd been yearning for since the beginning. She gave him...peace. "Daddy, please, don't go._

* * *

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Logan, X-Men, or any of the Marvel characters affiliated with this movie.

* * *

Spoilers for Logan, don't read any further if you haven't seen the movie and don't want to have it ruined for you.

* * *

 **My Sunshine**

She tried to keep her tears at bay but failed. Her eyes are filled with tears with her bottom lip quivering as she stood over Logan's grave - no, he wasn't Logan to her anymore, he was her _Daddy_. The rest of the group already left but she stayed behind for a few more seconds, not wanting to leave her father. Wiping her nose with her sleeve, she grabs the cross standing over his grave.

No, this isn't right. There is no God. If there was, they wouldn't allow any of this to have happened.

She places the cross so it looks like an _X_ , in honor of what he did and who he was.

"...I'm sorry," she whispers, before having one last look at the grave that belongs to the man who became her father in his last moments. " _Goodbye_."

Grabbing her bag, she walks away, refusing to look back.

"Laura, hurry up," Rictor calls out to her, motioning for her to pick up her pace. She did exactly that but when she reaches the group, she does not want to talk to anyone and she is sure everyone knows that. So she does something that she knows is not smart. She grabs the music player and shoves the headphones in her ears. Turning it on, she presses the play button and immediately music begins playing, bringing a wave of fresh tears to her eyes.

" _You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are grey..._ "

* * *

Two days earlier

"Will he be okay Rictor?"

The oldest boy, who had assumed the role of the leader in their group, nods his head. "Sí, Laura, he'll be okay. We are giving him the serum, which is helping him to heal a lot quicker."

Laura lets out a breath she did not know she had been holding. "Thank you."

"...You care very much for the man, don't you?"

She looks at Logan before slightly nodding her head. "He has sacrificed so much for me, just so I could be here today," she mutters. "If I had not bothered him...so many people would be alive." Memories of the past three days flash into her mind. "But...what is done is done."

Rictor places a hand on her shoulder and gently squeezes it, but she quickly shrugs him off. He should know better, she hates physical contact. "Get some rest. He will not be waking up anytime soon."

She only nods her head, her eyes never moving from Logan's unconscious body. "Buenas noches, Rictor."

The older boy only nods his head before walking out of the cabin, leaving Laura alone with Logan. She watches him for a few seconds before standing up. She sees that he is dreaming - he keeps muttering names that she cannot recognize and he is beginning to shine with sweat.

She knows the signs of nightmares anywhere.

She walks over to him when Logan mutters Charles' name, which is followed quickly by an apology. Shame flushes throughout her body and she falters in her steps. The words she said a few minutes ago echo within her as she realizes that...Logan is suffering because of her. He has lost everything simply because she needed to get here. The man that helped shaped him into who he is today is dead because of her, because of the men that chase her. Would it have been better if she had died, alongside the rest of the kids back in Mexico City? Gabriela would still be alive, Charles would still be alive, the Munsons and Caliban - so many would be alive.

Suddenly, a hand grabs her wrist and her head whirls to look at Logan. "Don't...blame yourself," he mutters with half-lidded eyes, clearly half-asleep. "It ain't...your fault."

She looks at his hand, willing herself to keep her body still. "It is, though. So many were killed because Transigen wants me." She balls her left fist. "I have killed too many, Logan."

His head lops to the left, allowing him to clearly face her. "It isn't your...fault." She lets out a shaky breath and hides her face with her hair. Seeing this side of her makes him sympathizes with the girl. She is still so young, yet so old. She is barely eleven and already a murderer.

"You have nightmares," she states after getting control of her emotions. "People hurt me in mine."

"Mine are...different," he looks up at the ceiling and remembers the most recent dream. "I hurt people."

"They are bad people?"

"...It doesn't matter, not in the end."

"I have killed many but they were all bad men. They were hurting me, hurting those I cared for."

"They're people, thought," Logan places his hand onto hers. "and you're going to have to find a way to live with those dreams, the consequences of killing those men."

Laura stiffly nods her head. She opens her mouth to say something but his eyes are closed once again. Grabbing a cold cloth left by her friends, she places it upon his forehead and begins singing a song that she once sang with Gabriela.

" _The other night, dear, as I lay sleeping, I dreamt I held you in my arms,_ " she begins singing in a hushed tone. Why does she do it? She does not know but she feels as if this is...right. " _When I awoke, dear, I was mistaken, so I bowed my head, and I cried."_

This voice…there is so much angst in it, so much heartbreak.

Logan is sure that he is dreaming, there is no way that the little girl would be singing. So...why did he see her singing?

"Johnny...Cash?" he sleepily asks, half dazed from both the drugs in his system and sleep.

She is silent and he thinks he is hallucinating everything until she answers. "Sí," she says, although she does not know who this...Johnny Cash is.

Logan does not know this, however, and only blinks wearily. He does not have any control over his tongue and before he can hold it back, he says, "I like...it."

Laura is shocked and embarrassed to be caught singing but when she sees Logan's face once more, she realizes that it was worth it. He is not tormented by nightmares at the moment and he seems to be...relaxed, a face she has not seen on the man.

So she continues. " _You are my sunshine, my only sunshine._ " She sits on the floor and rests her head on the bed, right next to Logan's arm. " _You make me happy when skies are grey._ "

An hour later, Rictor quietly opens the door to the cabin only to be shocked at what he sees. Logan and Laura are both fast asleep, the latter still in a sitting position next to the bed. What is even more shocking is the fact that Laura looks...comfortable, despite Logan's hand resting on the top of her head. He is left speechless and does not know what to think. Turning around, he decides to leave the two alone once more.

* * *

"... _You'll never know, dear, how much I love you, please don't take my sunshine away._ "


End file.
